Commentary: Defying Obamacare

Let's begin our reaction to the passage of Obamacare by remembering Winston Churchill's famous formulation with which he introduced his war memoirs: in defeat: defiance; in war: resolution; in victory; magnanimity; in peace: goodwill.

Now is the time for defiance! Here's what we must do:

1. Restore the Medicare cuts mandated in this bill. Block the reduction of physicians' fees by 21 percent scheduled to take effect this fall. Override the cuts in Medicare that require annual approval by Congress.

Challenge the Democrats over each and every cut. Try to peel away enough votes to stop the cuts from driving doctors and hospitals to adopt the course already taken by the Mayo Clinic in refusing to take Medicare patients.

2. Defeat the Democrats in the 2010 election. Start with the traitors who voted 'no' in November and then switched to a shameful 'yes' when it counted in March: Baird (Washington), Nye (Virginia), Kosmas and Boyd (Florida), Then go on to win the open seats in the House and Senate. And then fight to replace as many Democrats as possible.

Remember: Any Democrat who voted no would have voted yes if they had needed his or her vote. The only way to repeal Obamacare is to vote Republican.

3. Defund. Once we get the majority in both chambers, defund appropriations for the Obamacare program. The bill passed by the Congress and signed by the president is simply an authorization measure. Funds must be appropriated for it each year by Congress.

Through zero funding these changes, we can cripple them before they take full effect.

4. Repeal. And, once we defeat Barack Obama, we need to proceed to repeal this disastrous plan before it can ruin our health care system. Then, we must replace it with a Republican alternative which relies on the marketplace, tax incentives, and individual responsibility to provide health care to all Americans.

Above all, we must finally learn the fundamental lesson this political process we have been through has to teach: that there is no such thing as a conservative or moderate Democrat. Blue dogs don't exist in real life. Only yellow dogs.

The days when there were Democrats who refused to follow their radical left-wing party line are over. There are no longer "state" Democrats who vote conservative as opposed to "national" Democrats who vote with the left. They are an extinct species.

Some Senators and Congressmen capitalize on our memories of those days and pretend to be moderates. But they are just faking it.

Nancy Pelosi knew — as Harry Reid knew in the Senate — that she had the potential support of every single Democrat in her chamber if only the price was right. The sole difference between moderate and liberal Democrats is their asking price. Moderates require slightly higher bribes to assure their votes.

There are only two kinds of Congressmen or Senators: Democrats and Republicans. We have had a national education and its time to learn from it.

In days gone by, intelligent people liked to say that they voted for the person, not the party. Now those who say this are fooling themselves. There is only party! The most conservative Democrat is way to the left of the most liberal Republican.

The Democratic victory on Obamacare will prove the most expensive in the party's history. It will lead to the eradication of their majority, the defeat of more than 50 of their Congressmen, the switch of Senate control, and Republican domination for decades.

And, in the end, it will have done nothing to improve health care. But, fortunately, we can win the 2010 election to stop it from doing much damage.

That was an astounding bit of vitriol. Dick Morris and people like him put "party" before country. The Healthcare bill that passed is a shell of what was originally proposed. Due to over a year of fruitless attempts at bipartisanship a weaker bill than what is probably necessary passed. Calling the bill "Obamacare" and talking more about the number of pages in the bill, rather than what it contains cheapens any rational argument they might have had. The health system is broken. 61% of all personal bankruptcies result from unpayable healthcare bills.
Dick Morris and his colleagues are part of the problem. They offer no solutions. They refuse to lead effectively which is why they got booted in both 2004 and 2008. They refuse to follow. And they refuse to get out of the way.

By:Walter Sobchak on 3/25/10 at 8:37

Step number one is a total lie and typical of neo-con scare tactics. The Medicare cuts are ABSOLUTELY NOT related to this bill AT ALL. They are called SGR (Sustainable Growth Rate) cuts and we have been dealing with them since 1997. The SGR formula is flawed and is was actually OBAMA's recent defense appropriations bill that put a two month hold on the cuts so that the formula can be recalculated AND it's projected that we will actually see a 1.2% INCREASE in MC payments later this year. Unbelievable that fancy pants Morris is attempting to blame a 13 year old formula on this bill, flawed as it is. Keep up the lies, deceit, and scare tactics. Your fat, doughnut stained, constiuency will certainly listen and maybe even get swastika tatoos.

By:Loner on 3/25/10 at 8:44

Dick Morris and his wife are actually getting money for writing this sort of nonsense, still Morris and his wife have the chutzpah to accuse others of getting something for nothing. Right-wing media organs are providing a type of corporate welfare to hack writers, like this pair of delusional rabble-rousers.

Hey Dick, have you paid all those back taxes yet? You should be texting your missives from a penitentiary, you tax cheat!

Dick made his name by sucking up to and then turning on the Clinton's. Dick Morris then viciously attacked his former benefactors,. to the delight of the right-wing power brokers. Dick and Mrs. Dick are now carrying water for the dark side.

Morris' chrystal balls need a tune-up, my balls predict disaster for the Republican Party. A schism between the extremist tea bagger element and the more rational Republicans is developing along a predictable fault line.

McCain created a monster - Palin's ego will not accept being marginalized by the GOP, she will bolt the party and drag millions of idiots along with her; the Democrats will score big in 2010 and bigger in 2012.

By:742180 on 3/25/10 at 8:56

The niaviety of the 'obamaites' is undefinable. It's almost as if they are brain washed, thats assuming they have a brain. The name calling and branding anyone who critizes Obamapolicy as a right wing zealot is itself short sighted.
These policies which are being pushed and passed by this Democratic regime WILL lead to the end of the United States as we know it.
How one is able to gloss over the vote buying deals that were made. How one is unable to understand the bottom line agenda. How one is blindly accepting of the burden to provide care for a huge segment of society who refuses to make any life style changes themselves. It goes on and on the refusal to 'see' the obvious outcome of this national health care program, cap and trade, and other socialist legislation. It is a total unwillingness to understand how these programs are paid for, ie ignorance of the real outcome.
Look I realize that it would be wonderful to have a society that provides everything for everyone, all one has to do is wish to make it come true. Untopia has never been acheived and will never be acheived. Its just a vision/dream folks. Someone has to work and money is required to pay for services. These programs go completely counterproductive to any entreprenural sprit, and it is that spirt which seperates our Nation from all the rest. Why work when everything is provided?
Can't you grasp that this nation only has limited resources.
Sure national health care works (to a degree) in other countries, but not in countries with 300 million people. Consider this, genius, the state of California has more people than the entire population of Canada. Hello!
And quit calling those who oppose Obama all the names you do. We are not any crazier, extreme, insane, zealous, etc than you are. We just look beyond the trees and can see the forest.
Pop your bubble and consider how your children are going to be slaves to the economy of the future. Or just stay in your zone of Utopistic Dreaming and refuse accept the realities of national health care, Cap and Trade, and all the rest.
Obama said it best when he said it has 'taken a century of struggle' to get to this point. Don't you get it???
PS - Feel free to rationalize away my comments, critize and call me names, it will make you feel superior.

By:Alphadog7 on 3/25/10 at 9:13

There were a few good things, passed in the Healthcare bill, unfortunately the rest is supportive of Obama's not-so-secret agenda, which is create a society fully dependent on government. Everything he does is to gain power, even if its though amnesty, unemployment, controlling medicine, lack of jobs, massive debt, massive entitlements, discouraging small business... everything he does leads to government dependency. He doesn't even care if he is reelected, he just wants to cram as much Nationalizing in as he can before he leaves office. Most of the nation is finally waking up to what Conservatives feared all along. I think its pretty safe to say that if you still support Obama at this point, you will be more comfortable living in a European country that is a little more Socialist.

By the way, Dick Morris was not always a Conservative, he was an advisor to Bill Clinton.

By:Walter Sobchak on 3/25/10 at 9:30

Any one of you guys still using the term socialist, or any related term to describe this bill are nothing but DUMB or maybe brainwashed yourself. You do realize that this bill does nothing but give Corporations more control over our healthcare system than they had before (shockingly). RIGHT? It's a corporatist bill and something that would have been more believable under GW. There is no "government system" or "national healthcare". It's the HMOs that are celebrating this bill. They just landed 35 million new customers, even with the compromises. You idiots act as if there is a government component to this bill, but there is NONE. It's the federal government doing the exact same thing they've done since Reagan, OUTSOURCE. In this case, healthcare has been outsourced to private insurers. Wake up teabaggera and neo-cons. Your pissed at Obama for following the same trail your party blazed.

By:RealityRosie on 3/25/10 at 9:46

THE WRITER OF THIS "COMMENTARY" IS OBVIOUSLY BLIND TO REALITY. WHERE IN THE PRESS IS REPRESENTED THE BIG SILENT MAJORITY WHO SUPPORT CHANGE?

By:vechester on 3/25/10 at 9:59

Hey, Rosie TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK! IT HURTS MY EARS.

By the way latest polls show health care bill was not widely supported.

Oh and by the way you can blame the backlash in November on "W" also...

By:Walter Sobchak on 3/25/10 at 10:08

There will be a backlash, but those "backlashing" will have no idea why they are "backlashing". Only that some media spinsters used the word Socialist to describe a bill that's at the other end of the spectrum. Who blamed GW for anything related to this anyway?

By:Marymeet on 3/25/10 at 10:28

10 things you just won with Health Care reform. http://cli.gs/6M0UV sounds good to me. I am so sad that 2 people reading the same material can see such radically different meanings. One sees positive things the other nothing but hatred and darkness for change. I guess the Civil Rights movement just drove the hate and fear underground.

By:vechester on 3/25/10 at 10:58

1 thing I just lost with the new HC bill. My personal liberty to do as I please with my life and my health care. IT'S MY BUSINESS AND NO ONE ELSE'S. Not anyone on this post and certainly not the government.

Marymeet, how's that for CIVILITY?

Walter, I know why the backlash will happen! Because I and so many others are tired of the continuous over-reaching of government into our lives and our liberties!

By:Walter Sobchak on 3/25/10 at 11:09

Ok Vechester. So where the HELL have you been for the last 16 years?

And by the way, it's now private insurers, NOT the government that will be reaching into your life and liberties. Just as corporations have been doing for the last 16 years (albeit with federal support). Corporate entitlements are our biggest problem and both parties have supported this. This bill just expands corporate entitlements. It's not this administration or the last administration that are to blame. It's the system. why can't people see this? It's simply ignorant to blame a guy who's in office as the slave to a system. No matter who's in office, legislation always favors big business, at our expense.

By:Kosh III on 3/25/10 at 11:58

vchester
"My personal liberty to do as I please with my life and my health care. IT'S MY BUSINESS AND NO ONE ELSE'S. Not anyone on this post and certainly not the government."

I'll bet you sang a different tune about personal liberty when you supported Amendment One which stole the freedom to marry from gay people.

By:Kosh III on 3/25/10 at 11:58

And of course it's not Bush's fault--it's Clinton!

By:Blanketnazi2 on 3/25/10 at 12:01

excellent point, Kosh.

By:kennyj on 3/25/10 at 1:27

Some folks don't keep up on news, Obama himself said it was not a popular bill (that was UP news, not Fox, etc). Knowing that the Dems still said-- damn the torpedos, full speed ahead.

If you think it is just corporate entitlements, why do you support it? And yes, the AMA, Hospital Associations, pharmaceuticals, and Insurance Companies are going to be the major beneficiaries. The bill does not set rates on premiums, the "can't refuse those with existing disabilities" is a nothing--the Insurance companies can quadruple the rate--still isn't affordable. In fact, the bill does not cap anything for the middle-class insured, just for the government expenditures.

The Nation has a shortage of family care physicians because they don't make near as much as specialists--and their rates are going to be cut, seems pretty stupid to me.

This bill does nothing to address the root causes of our health care crisis.

By:Dragon on 3/25/10 at 3:12

By: Walter Sobchak on 3/25/10 at 9:30
"You do realize that this bill does nothing but give Corporations more control over our healthcare system than they had before (shockingly). RIGHT?"

Wrong, Walter. If you read the bill closely, you find that the government is taking control of the corporations. The government will define what benefits are offered, who the benefits will be offered to, and how much they are allowed to charge for the benefits. Additionally, the corporations will pay fees to government while the government dictates their administration, overhead and profit.

That is why Obama spent so much time telling us how evil the insurance companies were.

By:Dragon on 3/25/10 at 3:20

By: kennyj on 3/25/10 at 1:27
"The bill does not set rates on premiums, the "can't refuse those with existing disabilities" is a nothing--the Insurance companies can quadruple the rate--still isn't affordable. In fact, the bill does not cap anything for the middle-class insured, just for the government expenditures."

You also need to read the bill. Page 40 addresses the requirement that premium increases are allowed only by the Secretary of HHS.

By:Walter Sobchak on 3/25/10 at 4:59

Dragon, Why do you think the MCOs signed off on this bill? They love it. Everything you just mentioned is part of the compromise process but is something the MCOs obviously bent on considering they'll see tens of millions of new customers forced in to the system un-constitutionally. The langugage you refer to is garden-variety regulatory language, and can be found in any bill addressing industry standards. This is outsourced health coverage, period. You think the same insurance companies that currently receive billions in corporate wellfare are somehow, suddenly "EVIL" ? Wake up. Why would you believe anything that comes out of a President's mouth anyway? Typical that so many like you are buying federal lip service. This is the same old shit, different President.

By:Walter Sobchak on 3/25/10 at 5:06

and by the way Kenny, I don't support this bill at all, but this thing has gotten more negative reaction than the Patriot Act did and it's the same old Corporatist crap. It ensures that our biggest industry survives and thrives under the watchful eyes of our Government, which is OWNED by corporations like these. It's a pre-emptive bailout.